Electronic systems and circuits have made a significant contribution towards the advancement of modern society and are utilized in a number of applications to achieve advantageous results. Numerous electronic technologies such as digital computers, calculators, audio devices, video equipment, and telephone systems facilitate increased productivity and cost reductions in analyzing and communicating data, ideas and trends in most areas of business, science, education and entertainment. Wireless networks are often utilized to realize many of these advantageous results. Wireless networks typically facilitate distributed processing and communication of information over large geographic areas to numerous devices. Managing communication activities and maintaining client address information can be difficult and problematic.
Wireless networks offer a number of potential advantages including permitting a user to be relatively mobile within coverage areas when engaging in communication activities. Wireless networks usually have a stationary basic infrastructure which communicates information to and from wireless mobile nodes or end user devices such as cell phones, laptops, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and a variety of other devices. A client (e.g., end user) normally accesses a wireless network via a mobile node (MN) by initiating a communication session with an access point (AP)/root device, such as a wireless router, switch, etc. The client typically initiates access by engaging in an authentication and registration process with centralized network resources via the access point. Traditionally the registration process is performed each time a mobile node enters within range or a geographical area associated with an access point.
The diversity and mobility of numerous potential clients makes it important in a wireless network to maintain accurate and updated information associated with clients logged onto a network. For example, root devices usually rely on a table or list of client media access control (MAC) addresses for forwarding traffic to appropriate clients. If a client suddenly roams away or otherwise “disconnects” from a root device without notifying the root device of the “disconnect” the root device does not update the table or list of client addresses leaving stale entries in the table or list of the root device which can cause significant interference with communication traffic.
Traditional communication devices usually continue to forward information to clients on an address list, even if the client has “left” or disconnected from the root device. For example, if an upstream device has information for delivery to a client address, the downstream or root device usually tries to forward the information to the “stale” client address if the address is still in the list of client addresses. Conventional communication devices will also usually attempt to forward broadcast information to stale client addresses. Attempts to forward information to stale clients can tie up bandwidth for useless communication of information to clients that are no longer registered or coupled with a device resulting in traffic problems and delays to other “useful” information being forwarded to active clients.
Conventional communication network limitations (e.g., bandwidth, etc.) often compound problems associated with traditional registration and tracking activities. For example, some traditional attempts try to use timer based flushing of the MAC address tables such that if a client does not generate traffic within a predetermined amount of time the client address is removed from the list. In these attempts to update an address list, a root device assumes that a client has roamed away or otherwise become disconnected since there is no traffic for the predetermined amount of time. However, this approach tends to erroneously remove clients from an address list and the clients do not receive communication information. Clients can still be associated with a root device but the client just happens not to produce any traffic.